LAHORE: More and more students are approaching the Lahore High Court against federal government’s policy of regulation of admission to private medical colleges since the court suspended the policy’s notification.

Hearing petitions of a number of students, who have applied to different medical colleges for bachelors in medical sciences, the court in a last week order had suspended the admission regulation policy along with the impugned notification issued by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

Taking up some fresh petitions by Mashal Salam and other students, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza on Monday passed the same order and sought reply from the PMDC by Nov 29.

Advocate Munawar Salam argued on behalf of the petitioners that the PMDC issued a notification on Oct 27 to do away with SAT-II examination for the purpose of entry into medical colleges.

The counsel said the petitioners were seeking admission to a private medical college that offered admission on the basis of either the National University of Medical Sciences entrance test or SAT-II test.

He said the petitioners took the SAT-II test and the result was announced on Oct 27, the day the PMDC issued the impugned notification. He said in this way petitioners were made ineligible for admission to the college.

The counsel argued that the impugned policy of the government was unconstitutional and discriminatory in nature. He asked the court to strike down the Oct 27 notification by the PMDC.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2016